Do Republicans or Democrats treat their base with more respect?

[el_bryanto]

Bryant

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	It's about equal
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	Probably Republicans
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	Definitely Republicans
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	One thing nobody can respect - bullshit polls!
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[brooklynite]

1. I think respect is the wrong word...

...and is it beneficial to do so anyway?

The Republican Party is responsive to its base, which in my opinion has caused it a huge amount of damage.

[el_bryanto]

3. I don't know - I think respect covers both being responsive and reflecting their views

How many times have we watched Democratic party leaders mock the liberal base in an attempt to get the middle? Republicans don't do that nearly as often, in my opinion.

Bryant

[brooklynite]

6. And which Party is shrinking in size?

Which Party is exhibiting a growing inability to win Presidential elections?

[el_bryanto]

7. Yes - it's a problem for Republicans - a growing problem - well shrinking i guess.

Karl Rove's strategy, such as it was, depended on three planks - making sure the base (tea-partiers more or less) was going to vote for bush, making sure bush acted moderate enough to fool some of the middle into voting for him, and depressing democratic vote. They are still working that template, as their base gets crazier and crazier, but they seem unwilling or unable to say enough is enough.

Bryant

[wyldwolf]

2. I have problems with the current definition of 'base.'

Traditionally, the term base refers to a group of voters who almost always support a single party's candidates for elected office. Base voters are very unlikely to vote for the candidate of an opposing party, regardless of the specific views each candidate holds.


I don't feel the most conservative or most liberal factions of the major parties meet that definition.

[tuhaybey]

4. Honesty is the cornerstone of respect

IMO, the most basic element of respect is honesty. With that in mind, think about the picture the Republicans paint of where money is flowing in our society. We hear all the time, every day, that our nation is basically collapsing into a situation where virtually every dollar earned by anybody is being sucked in to the gaping maw of welfare. We hear all the time that even if we taxed every penny the top 10% made, we could never cover this massive deficit. We hear all the time that the interest on the national debt is going to exceed our entire GDP any day now.

Here are the real numbers for how much of our GDP goes to the top 0.1%, the military, welfare, foreign aid, interest on the debt, food stamps, etc.

As a side note, on average, Americans think that 28% of our federal budget goes to foreign aid! Almost 1 in 8 Americans think that more than half of our federal budget is dedicated to foreign aid. Guess which party gave them that idea! As the chart above shows, it is actually well under 1% of our federal budget.

[Scootaloo]

5. Considerign that the base of both parties are the wealthy elite... n/t